No, it definitely went shit when half the writing team left the other half to write it singlehanded. That was shit. This looks...better than that, although from the comments above, it probably helps that I'm watching in SD.

For me it was on shaky ground when Ed Bye left, but really lost the edge when Rob Grant called it quits. Once Doug Naylor was driving the story lines it was just so hit and miss - mostly misses for me. I didn't like Naylor's Last Human book at all - it was bleak, dark, and bereft of the situational comedy that brought the characters to life.

Last night after watching the new trailer I watched Backwards just for the hell of it and everything about it outshines all of Naylor's series VII, except for maybe Tikka to Ride. Naylor took a walk off the reservation that whole series, with back-references to the glory days (Ace Rimmer) and while I doff my cap at what he tried to do with series VIII, I just never felt as fond of those last two "proper" series' as I do of those before them.

I'm afraid the trailer for RD X just highlighted how old they've all got. I turned 40 a week ago, yet I was still at school when the first series aired - it's just impossible for them to maintain the level they were at two decades ago, especially after the material from the first books ran out.

All my favourite series' have run their course eventually - some at least bow out on a high, whilst others (The X-Files) maybe over stay their welcome.

I do hope series X of Red Dwarf is a return to form, if only so that they can go out on a high and call it a day.

Could be good, holding my hopes for now. One encouraging sign is it looks a bit old-school and isn't a super glossy cgi fest. First series was by far the best, purely character driven and more "realistic". After the last offering, I doubt they can do any worse though!

I actually love RD, but I honestly don't see this tremendous dip in jokes and shit. It's always felt RD start to finish. Think rod has a point, it was good back then but it can't hack it in this 21st century. Or we've all become comedy snobs, like those cunts do with music/film/games/shit.

No he's right you're in the wrong thread...Smeghead.

Season 1 isnt as funny as the rest but once you get to episodes like Thanks for the memory and Stasis Leak in 2 it starts to hit its stride. Then season 3 came along with the brilliant Marooned, Polymorph and timeslides. Amazing episodes. 4 is my personal favourite season, you don't get much better comedy than D.N.A, White Hole and Dimension Jump. Close to perfection. 5's Holoship, Quarantine, Demon's and Angels and Back to reality continue with the high quality but it starts loosing something with season 6 though, Legion, Polymorph 2, Gunmen of the Apocalypse and Out of Time are very good. Might be due to the loss of the Red Dwarf model.

Season's 7 and 8 never really got me that excited. They added to many other variables that werent needed like Kochanski, Nanites and bring the whole red dwarf crew back.

A few months ago I watched all of Red Dwarf series 1-7. I still love it, apart from series 7 onwards.

The only "newer" episode that I like is "Stoke Me a Clipper" because it still captures the feeling of the older episodes in terms of the characters, but combines this with a great little story and ending, like a lot of the older episodes did.

Newer episodes just seem completely void of whatever made Red Dwarf so special in it's golden age. I think it's mainly down to Chris Barrie looking too happy and not cynical enough with that fed up feeling permanently on his face - now he just looks too self-aware of what he's doing and chuffed he has TV work. Rimmer needs to be miserable, cynical and anal or the fundamental relationship mechanic between Rimmer and Lister is lost.

Zerobob wrote:
Chris Barrie looking too happy and not cynical enough with that fed up feeling permanently on his face - now he just looks too self-aware of what he's doing and chuffed he has TV work.

He's made a fortune from Red Dwarf and The Brittas Empire. Those E-Type jags don't come cheap y'know.

I'm sure he did make a lot of money and he deserved to. He might be chuffed to be on TV for other reasons than money though, but I think my point about him being too self-aware about digging up his old character is valid at least.

Red Dwarf just seems too much of a pantomime now, instead of a cleverly disguised comedy drama about the last surviving human drifting in space, which I'm sure is the idea the original series were trying to explore, underneath all the comedy and side-tracking of course.